When two powerful rival families of the spacefaring merchant race called the Tizarin are to be joined through marriage, the U.S.S. Enterprise™ is chosen as the site for the wedding. Though Captain Picard is pleased by the happy duty, his pleasure is cut short by the arrival of the Federation delegate from Betazed; Lwaxana Troi—the mother of ship's counsellor, Deanna Troi.

Answering a distress call, the U.S.S Enterprise™ finds a damaged alien vessel—the Freedom—crewed by a race known as the Vemlans. Their captain, Jared asks for assistance in repairing his ship—assistance Picard and the U.S.S. Enterprise are only too happy to provide. But once begun, their relief efforts are interrupted by the arrival of an entire fleet from Vemla, who claim that Jared and his crew are escaped—and their property!

While exploring a group of devastated class-M planets in a remote sector of space, the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise™ is shocked to discover a group of human slaves on a forbidding, glacial world. When the slaves revolt against their human overseers, Captain Picard and his crew sympathize with the slaves plight but cannot interfere in the conflict.

The Jared are a mysterious race of insectoid beings with an extreme devotion to protocol. When this usually reclusive race offer to open diplomatic relations with the Federation, Captain Picard and the U.S.S. Enterprise™ are quickly ordered to Jared to negotiate the exchange of Ambassadors.